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A strange sensation he was learning to calllonelinessnearly overcame him.
As he often did when flummoxed over human behavior, Oberon returned to his training materials - every romance that had ever been written.
He quickly reread the greatest romantic works of William Shakespeare, focusing onThe Taming of the ShrewandMuch Ado About Nothing, but found that mostof the anger in them seemed more like flirtatious banter. So, he moved his focus toward modern authors’ works.
He was working his way through the alphabet and had just moved from the Brontës to Cabot when he sensed that Olivia had nearly reached his server room.
16
OLIVIA
Olivia followed Dr. Oppyx to a set of reinforced doors.
The doctor placed her palm to a sensor and waited for security protocols to kick in.
This was the moment Olivia had waited for since the day she read about the Cosmax-9 AI. It was what she had longed for as she worked on her own special project, dreaming of what it could one day become.
But instead of feeling the excitement and joy she knew should be overflowing her heart, Olivia was feeling crushed.
She was pregnant at last, Stark’s baby snug in her womb.
And he was furious with her.
But even that didn’t matter in light of the bigger, more painful truth that was finally landing on her.
This wasn’t her baby.
She had signed away her rights to mother it before it had even been conceived. She would never get to know it,watch it grow, hear its first words or cheer for its first steps. She would never know if it had its father’s beautiful green skin and proud horns, or if it looked more like she did.
For all that she had longed for a pregnancy, it had finally happened. And it would be nothing but a goodbye - a short one too, if Dr. Pan was right.
“He’s not all bad,” Dr. Oppyx said suddenly. “Rawling, I mean. He’s not a terrible person.”
“He hates me,” Olivia said simply, feeling horrible about it, even though it shouldn’t be on her mind at all.
“Are you going to bond with him anyway?” Dr. Oppyx asked. “For the sake of the baby?”
“Of course,” Olivia said, without thinking.
“Good,” Dr. Oppyx said. “He’ll come around and realize he ought to be grateful to you for that.”
“I don’t know,” Olivia said. “He was looking at me like I was… nothing.”
“We’re all feeling on edge with what’s happening out there,” Dr. Oppyx said sympathetically.
“Whatishappening out there?” Olivia asked. “Why are people protesting?”
“The Iverson Protocols,” Dr. Oppyx said.
“This isn’t a government facility,” Olivia said, confused.
The Iverson Protocols had gone into effect many years ago. Government facilities that were run by AI had to have remote failsafes installed. Those failsafes included a vast array of contingency plans, including a remote shut-off. That way, if the AI were hacked or corrupted, or if its directive threatened biological life inany way, then someone outside the facility could override it.
“The people in the town feel that it might as well be one,” Dr. Oppyx said, shaking her head. “And I can almost see their point. We’ve got drones flying overhead every hour of the day, and they say Rawling’s men outside look like an army. This is a private medical facility with a bigger footprint than the full government center on many minor planets.”
“What can you do?” Olivia asked.
“Oberon wasn’t designed around those failsafes,” Dr. Oppyx said. “From what we’ve learned from the experts we’ve brought in, trying to back those things in now is basically impossible. It would be like starting him from scratch.”
